Thanks for
stopping by to talk a little about your writing! Let's jump right in. When did
you begin writing and why?
That's a tricky question. The first
thing I ever wrote was an oral speech I had to give in fifth grade. The teacher
wanted a story of what we did over the summer. Typical. I was nervous about
speaking because, at that age, I had a slight speech impediment. I told a story
about my brother and I finding ponies in a field (now a short story called: Pony
Summer in Memories of My Childhood) and how we tried to ride them. I
threw in a touch of humor. At the end, my teacher took me aside and said,
"You are going to be a writer." Really. Though I told her: I was
going to be an artist. I became both. Because when I grew up I did become a graphic
artist in the real world, but something, something I couldn't stop, made me
start writing poems at age twenty and then I found myself writing my first
novel at twenty-one; forty-eight years ago now. I haven't stopped since. About
sixteen years ago I put the artwork away and devoted myself totally to my
books. They take all my time.
Do you have a
favorite genre? Is it the same genre you prefer to write? I started out, in
1984, as a horror writer. I was an avid fan of Stephen King, Dean Koontz and
Anne Rice and my early paperbacks sat on the book shelves next to them (I was
so proud). My first novels were about vampires, witches, ghosts and eternal
demons in the woods; most also with a secondary thread of romance and/or
mystery. Yet over the years I eventually graduated into writing romantic
paranormal, time-travel, thrillers and murder mysteries. These days it's my
murder mysteries and thrillers that sell the best, but I will always love
horror and the paranormal, to read and write.
Do certain themes
and ideas tend to capture your writer’s imagination and fascinate you? Many themes. Over
my career I've written apocalytic stories, stories about people being haunted
by old mysteries and old crimes or by ghosts, real or imagined. Murders. I've
been intrigued about any idea that pitted good against evil in any form, demons
against angels and humans, bad people against good. I'm fascinated with
characterization. I strive to make my readers care about my characters so that
when something happens to one of them, good or bad, the reader cares, too.
How do you balance long-term thinking vs. being nimble in
today's market? It's not easy. I've been around a long
time. I started my first books on a typewriter. 1972. I've had to learn the new
technologies, the computer and the Internet. I was with traditional publishers
for over thirty-three years and in 2012 dove head first into self-publishing.
I've learned to do all I have to do, formating my own eBooks, paperbacks and
creating my audio books with narrators on ACX; to run my own writing empire.
Promoting on Twitter and Facebook. There are still things I don't/can't do, but
every day I try to learn a new trick. I have to to stay nimble to remain in the
new game.
How do you find readers in today's market? Twitter, Facebook and any blog I can get on. I also have
a blog. I am on Prolific Works offering free partials of my books. I also offer
permafree the first in both my series, Dinosaur Lake and Spookie Town Murder
Mysteries, that helps sell the sequels. I'm getting ready to try Amazon ads. So
much to do and try yet. I think I have an ace in the hole, though, as my books
have been published since 1984 and after that many years some readers know of
me. The thing is, I don't really actually know how to find readers today - I
just scatter-shot everywhere and hope it helps.
Do you come up with the hook first, or do you create
characters first and then dig through until you find a hook? After twenty-eight novels and twelve short stories over
forty-eight years either way works for me. But I do usually get the
character/characters first and they often come with the hook or a loose plot.
How do you create your characters? Sometimes they're based on people I have met or known.
Sometimes I dream of them or I read (used to when I read newspapers, now it's
the news feed on the Internet or TV) about them in the newspaper. Some I take
from my own life, work, family or friends. Some I just make-up. My husband of
over forty years has been/is a character himself and he is, in one form or
another, in many of my stories. He's done many strange and interesting jobs in
our life together (Marines, cop, security guard, truck driver, PI, salesman,
machinist) and has given me many characters. He is also a verbal storyteller and
sometimes I steal the essence of his tales.
What's on the top of your TBR pile right now? The newest Stephen King or Dean Koontz book, whatever
they are. But I have been so busy lately finishing my twenty-eighth novel and
my twenty-seventh audio book, promoting, etc. that I haven't had much time
lately to read. I miss it. That is the biggest difference with self-publishing,
a writer has to do it all. Write and promote. It takes a lot of time and I also
need balance in my life. I need to be able to LIVE, enjoy my husband and
family, friends as well as write and promote. Keeping a balance is not easy.
Tell me a little
about the characters in Dinosaur Lake V: Survivors.
My Dinosaur Lake series (5 books
now) is my second best-selling series. I have two series; the other, and my
best-selling right now, is a cozy murder mystery called Spookie Town Murder
Mystery series (5 books). This dinosaur thriller series is set in Crater Lake
National Park, Oregon, and the main character is the Chief Park Ranger who, in
the first book (which is free everywhere), discovers a vicious, cunning
prehistoric dinosaur in the lake and how he and others find, fight and kill it.
The beauty and wildness of an Oregon national park with a unique caldera lake
gives me a great setting. Winters are brutal with all the snowfall and summers
are beautiful with the green park full of visitors. The other books in the
series are continuing adventures in the park when more dinosaurs show up
eventually threatening the world. Fun note? I originally wrote the first book
in 1993 and it was supposed to be published by Zebra paperbacks in 1994. But I
got a new editor six weeks before it was to go to the book shelves (final
editing and covers were done) and he ditched it saying: "No one wants to
read about dinosaurs." Really. A half a year later Jurassic Park the book
came out. Disgusted, I stuck Dinosaur Lake in a drawer for twenty years and in
2012, wanting to try self-publishing for the first time, I took the old
manuscript out and rewrote it; self-published it and for the next six years it
and its sequels sold like hotcakes for me. It blew me away. So by 2015 I had
taken all my books back from legacy publishers and self-published all of them.
The sixty to seventy percent royalties I now receive gives me a much better
income on my novels and short stories. I only self-publish these days and I do
it all. Write, format, publish and promote. I have my own book empire.
If you had to
write your memoir in five words, what would you write? Empathetic
person; loved to write.
How often does
your muse distract you from day to day minutiae? I've been writing
now for over 48 years of my life and my muse never leaves me. I've learned to
live with her, always listen to her, but she no longer rules my life as she did
when I was younger. If I get an idea, I take notes and then I write when I feel
like it. Also, 48 years ago I started on a typewriter (took forever, hunt and
pecking)...and modern day advances like the computer and the Internet make it
so much easier now to write and publish a book. And now that I'm officially
retired from the outside full time working world (I was a graphic designer at
different companies for years) I have more time to split between her and
housework/family/living.
What do readers
have to look forward to in the future from you?
Last year I was diagnosed with early stage
breast cancer and had to have surgery and radiation treatments (and my husband,
Russell, of over forty years also fought bladder cancer at about the samer
time)...it made me realize how little time I/we might have left so for now I am
very happy with my career and my 28 novels and 12 short stories published since
1984. I just finished book #28, the fifth Dinosaur Lake one, and hope to write
a few more novels as long as I stay well and breathing...but I will take my
time because I also intend to enjoy life. So if I don't write another novel I
think I am good with the 28. What do you think?
Dinosaur Lake V: Survivors
Thriller/SF/Horror
Dinosaur Lake series,
PG13
Publisher: Kathryn Meyer Griffith
The
Fifth Dinosaur Lake Book:
The
predator dinosaurs, amphibious, land-crawlers, air flyers, small and large,
were dead; dead in all the forests, mountains, deserts, towns and cities of
America and across the planet. They were still hunted, sought and exterminated when
found, and these rogue beasts were becoming rarer every day. The humans’
dinosaur killing serum and extermination practices had worked far better than
anyone had prayed and they had eventually freed the planet of its primordial
scourge. The earth belonged to the humans once more and all its lands were safe–or
so the world, Henry Shore, former Chief Park Ranger at Crater Lake National
Park, and his wife, Ann, had believed…until one day years later two new dinosaurs,
craftier than any the earth had ever seen, appeared. One of them was benevolent,
a friend to mankind, and the other was not. It was blood-thirsty, eerily
intelligent and unbelievably vengeful. This dinosaur wouldn’t be so easy to kill.
*** Dinosaur Lake V: Survivors is the fifth book in the Dinosaur Lake series by
Kathryn Meyer Griffith.
BUY LINKS:
Amazon Tiny URL: https://tinyurl.com/y83rdvuh
D2D Universal Book Link: https://books2read.com/u/4EMyNo
Excerpt:
Prologue
The predatory dinosaurs, amphibious,
land-crawlers, air flyers, small and large, were dead; dead in all the forests,
mountains, deserts, towns and cities of America and across the planet. They
were still hunted, sought and dispatched of when found, yet these rogue beasts
were becoming rarer every day. The humans’ dinosaur killing serum and extermination
practices had worked far better than anyone had hoped and it had eventually freed
the planet of its primordial scourge.
The world belonged to the humans once more and all
its lands were safe.
Or so the world, Henry Shore and his wife, Ann,
had believed…until one day years later….
Chapter 1
Henry lounged on the
porch in front of the newly finished cabin enjoying the morning. He was
watching the clouds as they scudded by. The wind was rustling the fall colored
leaves, of tawny gold, orange and sanguine hues, on the trees along the fringe
of his property. His yard was a large long piece of land rolling down five
acres to the woods; the cabin sat on the front third of it. There was a briskness
in the air so common to late fall in Oregon so he was wearing his warm robe and
slippers Ann had given him for his last birthday.
He had a fresh newsprint
copy of the Klamath Falls Journal in his hands and it crinkled as he turned the
page. He knew a small town print newspaper was an anachronism these days, what
with the Internet and all, but he still liked reading it if only for the hometown
quaint news of people and places he was familiar with and to feel the newsprint
in his hands.
For her part, Ann
couldn’t break the decades long habit of stopping by the rebuilt newspaper,
which she’d once been an employee and a publisher of before she’d sold it to
Elmer Gadston, and picking up the weekly editions. She was nostalgic in that
way. Sometimes she submitted articles of her own if something interesting around
town caught her fancy enough for her to write about it. Occasionally she
scribbled and submitted her now infamous whimsical drawings with the articles if
the piece would benefit from them. That’s how she kept her fingers in the
newspaper racket, or so she’d tell him. Besides she relished writing them and
seeing them published. Elmer printed everything she wrote and seemed honored to
receive them.
It amused Henry he
and Ann were considered hometown heroes because of the dinosaur wars and their
part in them. She maintained the newspaper pieces kept her in practice. But for
what, Henry had no idea. Ann swore she’d never return to working fulltime at a
newspaper or owning one, and especially since she’d begun her web blog: Small
Town News. The highly popular blog, about the humorous complexities of living
in a small gossipy town where everyone knew everyone else’s business and
happily blabbed about them, had over a million followers, and was growing daily.
It kept her busy, along with the book she was leisurely writing. Some readers loved
her blog so much they sent cash donations, at times quite substantial amounts,
which helped to pad their retirement income. Who would have known, Henry
thought, that the Internet would one day make Ann so much money…from home? All
those years when they’d been so worried about not having enough money to retire
on had been a wasted concern. The times had changed all right.
So Ann liked their
retirement life just fine.
The sun was barely
coming up over the autumn-hued trees and for a moment it reminded him of the
New England fall leaf trip he and Ann had taken two years before. That had been
a great trip. He’d taken an endless number of photographs of people, animals
and scenic locations and Ann had raved over the vibrant crimsons, ocher and yellows
of the lush foliage; the mustardy tang of the crisp air. They’d both agreed
they’d have to do it again. It had been that much fun.
A pirouetting
breeze swirled leaves around his feet. He sighed as his eyes stared up into the
pale sapphire sky, skimmed over the trees hulking above, and then scanned the
porch and yard surrounding him.
The cabin had been
completed a couple of months before and it was everything Henry and Ann could
have ever wanted. It had a generous two car garage in the backyard on the left with
a carport to cover their modest RV, a lovely sun porch on the front side and a
wraparound porch on the rear. His wife had insisted their home all be on one
floor with a roomy basement underneath it in case of a tornado or…if the dinosaurs
ever returned.
Oh, she hadn’t
said that about the dinosaurs exactly, about her fear they could return, but
Henry supposed it was never far from her thoughts or his really. He suspected
she still had nightmares about the dinosaur days. He knew he did.
The worst of his
nightmares were when he was forced to relive horrifying moments of each loss,
battle or the worst of those times, when his men or his friends had given their
lives to protect others. Then there were the horrendous dreams where he found
himself living and fighting back in the fortified ranger headquarters seemingly
in the middle of the final wars or on the day their daughter, Laura, died. He
would find himself repeating a whole day or many days as if it were occurring
again in real time.
Those nightmares persisted and he’d often
wake up, shaking, in a cold sweat with only one thought on his mind: Thank God that was only a dream! But it left feelings of angst and disorientation
that would hang on for hours.
Author Bio and Links
Since childhood I’ve been an artist and worked as a graphic designer in
the corporate world and for newspapers for twenty-three years before I quit to
write full time. But I’d already begun writing novels at 21, over forty-six
years ago now, and have had twenty-seven (nine romantic horror, two horror
novels, two romantic SF horror, one romantic suspense, one romantic time
travel, one historical romance, four thrillers, one non-fiction short story
collection, and six murder mysteries) previous novels, two novellas and twelve
short stories published from various traditional publishers since 1984. But
I’ve gone into self-publishing in a big way since 2012; and upon getting all my
previous books’ full rights back for the first time in 35 years, have
self-published all of them. My Dinosaur Lake novels and Spookie Town Murder
Mysteries (Scraps of Paper, All Things Slip Away, Ghosts Beneath Us, Witches
Among Us and What Lies Beneath the Graves) are my best-sellers.
I’ve been married to Russell for over forty years; have a son, two
grandchildren and a great-granddaughter and I live in a small quaint town in
Illinois. We have a quirky cat, Sasha, and the three of us live happily in an
old house in the heart of town. Though I’ve been an artist, and a folk/classic
rock singer in my youth with my late brother Jim, writing has always been my
greatest passion, my butterfly stage, and I’ll probably write stories until the
day I die…or until my memory goes.
2012 EPIC EBOOK AWARDS *Finalist* for her horror novel The Last Vampire ~ 2014 EPIC EBOOK
AWARDS * Finalist * for her thriller novel Dinosaur
Lake.
*All Kathryn Meyer
Griffith’s books can be found here:
*All her Audible.com audio
books here:
Novels and short stories from Kathryn Meyer
Griffith:
Evil Stalks the
Night, The Heart of the Rose, Blood Forged, Vampire Blood, The Last Vampire (2012 EPIC EBOOK AWARDS*Finalist* in their Horror category), Witches, Witches II: Apocalypse, Witches
plus Witches II: Apocalypse, The Nameless One erotic horror short story, The
Calling, Scraps of Paper (The First Spookie Town Murder Mystery), All Things
Slip Away (The Second Spookie Town Murder Mystery), Ghosts Beneath Us (The
Third Spookie Town Murder Mystery), Witches Among Us (The Fourth Spookie Town
Murder Mystery), What Lies Beneath the Graves (The Fifth Spookie Town Murder
Mystery), Egyptian Heart, Winter’s Journey, The Ice Bridge, Don’t Look Back,
Agnes, A Time of Demons and
Angels, The Woman in Crimson, Human No Longer, Four Spooky Short Stories
Collection, Forever and Always Romantic Novella, Night Carnival Short Story,
Dinosaur Lake (2014 EPIC EBOOK AWARDS*Finalist* in their Thriller/Adventure
category), Dinosaur Lake II: Dinosaurs Arising, Dinosaur Lake III: Infestation
and Dinosaur Lake IV: Dinosaur Wars, Dinosaur Lake V: Survivors, Memories of My
Childhood and Christmas Magic 1959.
Her Websites:
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/KathrynG64
My Blog:
https://kathrynmeyergriffith.wordpress.com/
My Facebook author
page: https://www.facebook.com/KathrynMeyerGriffith67/
Facebook Author Page:
https://www.facebook.com/pg/Kathryn-Meyer-Griffith-Author-Page-208661823059299/about/?ref=page_internal
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Kathryn-Meyer-Griffith/579206748758534
http://www.authorsden.com/kathrynmeyergriffith
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/889499.Kathryn_Meyer_Griffith
http://en.gravatar.com/kathrynmeyergriffith
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kathryn-meyer-griffith-99a83216/
https://www.pinterest.com/kathryn5139/
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